Hi all, I know this is slightly off-topic, but I couldn't think of anywhere else to post this.
I have a cocoa-butter-related question. I'd like to replace the (regular) butter in a recipe for brownies with cocoa butter. Is there anything I need to pay attention to?
The recipe calls for cocoa powder and not the usual chocolate bars and, I think, 250g of butter.
Can I simply use 250g of cocoa butter instead? How might results differ from those when using butter?
Thanks much!

Gracie

Chippenham, United Kingdom

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May 10, 2010 - 8:28 pm

Hi Alex,

Firstly cocoa butter is harder than dairy butter, and it has no water content, so I'd reduce the quantity of cocoa butter slightly and add a little extra liquid. I think the water content of butter is about 15%.
It might need some playing with but I'd guess that the result might have a drier mouthfeel.
Be interested to know how it goes!

alex_h

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May 11, 2010 - 4:47 pm

Hi Gracie,
Thank you very much for your reply. I have been looking for an answer for quite a while now. If I go ahead and use the cocoa butter I will post the results here. Maybe I'll just chicken out tho and use regular butter 😉 Don't want to waste all my Domori cocoa powder!

Gracie

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May 11, 2010 - 5:40 pm

What's your motivation in replacing the butter?...are you after a dairy free creation or is it the search for a pure chocolate hit unadulterated by the taste of butter fat? You've got me thinking about the possibilities now!

alex_h

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May 12, 2010 - 1:33 pm

No, I'm not really trying to get rid of any dairy, just thought it might generally be a healthier way to make the brownies. If I try your suggestion, the question is what liquid to add? Milk? Because the only 'liquid' in the recipe is eggs.
For the recipe google "wednesday chef medrich brownies". They sound delicious.

Alex Rast

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May 12, 2010 - 9:34 pm

quote:

Originally posted by alex_h

Hi all, I know this is slightly off-topic, but I couldn't think of anywhere else to post this.
I have a cocoa-butter-related question. I'd like to replace the (regular) butter in a recipe for brownies with cocoa butter. Is there anything I need to pay attention to?
The recipe calls for cocoa powder and not the usual chocolate bars and, I think, 250g of butter.
Can I simply use 250g of cocoa butter instead? How might results differ from those when using butter?
Thanks much!

Think of what this will do. If it calls for cocoa powder, the results will be very similar simply to using an unsweetened chocolate. It depends on how much cocoa powder there is, though. Unsweetened chocolate is in the range of 50-55% cocoa butter, usually.

The results will be very dry and quite crumbly. Paradoxically, it will have *less* chocolate flavour, not more. My experience is invarying: butter in baked goods powerfully enhances the chocolate flavour. I suspect this is because the fat better emulsifies the chocolate, giving better delivery in the mouth.

Butter has a very specific melting point while cocoa butter melts over a range of temperatures. So in the oven, the dough or batter won't liquefy quickly. This will trap sugars and thus you are unlikely to get a nice glossy sheen or crust (which happens because the sugars fall out of suspension when the butter liquefies and migrate to the surface where they caramelise). This is one reason why butter also has a decided advantage over margarine or solid vegetable fats, which also have a broader melting range, for brownies.

Flour also absorbs the moisture in butter, which makes the resulting brownies not only moister, but also thicker, denser, and softer. Your brownies are likely to be somewhat hard, getting closer to a biscuitty texture.

If you want to add moisture I'd use a liquid sugar with some water content. Treacle would be my first choice. The only problem is that again this is likely to interfere with surface caramelisation, so you'll need to adjust the ratios carefully. Don't use too much treacle or the net result will be mushy and gummy.

Instead of using vanilla extract I used one vanilla pod. The results were very delicious!
So thanks for your recommendations so far. If anyone tries cocoa butter, could you post the results here?
Thanks again!